Gastrobar en Ibi (Alicante)

Ricardo Moltó inherited the Ricardo restaurant in Ibi from his father, which in its heyday was known for hosting business and political meetings held around seafood platters. After training across cookery schools and restaurants, however, he decided to give the place a new direction, one orientated towards contemporary design and cuisine. Ricardo emigrated with the crisis, experiencing both the challenges and rewards that doing so entails, before returning home and taking the opportunity to reinvent the business with the new Erre que Erre restaurant. The cuisine is the same as always, with a neoclassical base and impeccably efficient technique – sous vide cooking, yes, but without the pretension. It’s a commitment to the land and ideas imbued with ingenuity rather than flash: sautéed red pine mushrooms and artichokes, unusual yet appetising, or a mixture of pericana and migas de pastor breadcrumbs accompanying boneless lamb. Moltó is centred more around meat than fish: exquisite cod with black pudding and broad beans, alongside truffled chicken with mushrooms in textures; but that’s not to say you won’t also find a touch of trendy tuna tartare, almost unseasoned in a commitment to simplicity and the product itself. Being from Ibi, the chef makes his own ice creams too, with the turrón and chocolate ice creams perhaps his best desserts.